Systema UK Fear Inoculation Training Workshop (single DVD available from www.systemauk.com)
Not many resoursces out there dealing with the effects of fear in combat performance. I can think of Geoff Thompson's Fear: The Friend of Exceptional People (this one's a book) but the famous Brittish doorman-martial artist-award winning writer approaches the subject from a philosofical, self-help kind of way. There's also Scott Sonnon's Fisticuffs – Peak Performance Pugilism series of tapes, probably the most scientific sport psychology approach to combat sports I've ever came across, but this one is currently unavailable – I have it in my collection, you probably don't. Then, there's the Systema UK Fear Inoculation Training Workshop, by Systema Russian Martial Art instructors Rob Poyton and Paul Genge.
One of the most important difference between the Russian Martial Art and other, more typical combat systems is that the Russians view combat from a psycho-physiological perspective, as opposed to a purely technical analysis (when attacked by A you react doing B, and so on). The Russian promise is the following: if you can control your breathing when under the stress of combat, then you can control your body structure and movement, which means that you have access to your combat skills, the techniques. Not only is it simple, but it kind of makes sense: the old boxing coaches (perhaps the new ones also) always tell their fighters that they should not hold their breath when cornered... Of course what you must do is one thing – what you can do is a whole different story. Try this experiment the next time you're at the sea or the pool: Swim to the point where water is up to your chest, take a deep breath, dive underwater and lie on the bottom. Have a training partner (or a friend, or your wife, whatever) stand on your chest to keep you underwater and stay there for as long as possible. You probably can handle this for a minute or so - then you first panic and then you start jerking around (like a fish outside the water) in an attempt to free your self and reach the surface. That specific moment you're panicking, you are not hurting yourself. It's the automated way your body is trying to protect itself, telling you that you're not supposed to do this. It kind of works the same way in combat: if, when fighting, you lose control of your breathing, your body tells you that you can't do this, that you should give it up. What happens next is easy to guess.
Rob Poyton and Paul Genge are top notch Systema instructors: not only are they highly skilled, they also have this ability to take what is sometimes taught by the Russian masters in an intuitive way and organise it in easy to understand and practice training drill progressions. This Fear Inoculation Training Workshop filmed live during a 2006 Systema UK seminar is a good expample. The first part of the workshop is an analysis of the way the human brain functions under stress – a bit of scinentific jargon to help you understand what is the specific purpose of this kind of training. There's also a comparison between the Systema way and the ways other martial arts deal with the effects of fear. The second part tackles breath control as a means of controlling your mindset when under combat stress. There are tons of drills here to help you maintain an unimpeded breathing pattern when you're being sweared at, kicked, smashed on the floor by the weight of three persons and contorted by three partners aplying joint locks to multiple joints. Most of the drills are unorthodox, some are slightly sadistic, but if you practice them (I have) you'll find out that they work. Finally there's a third part with numerous drills that cultivate instnctive movement when one is under attack: this is a way to short-circuit the "freezing" effect the adrenaline rush sometimes has on your body. The perticipants start by simply moving out of the way of a surprise charge of a partner towards them and graduate to countering full speed and power punching attacks.
If you don't have a kamikaze or a predator mindset but still want to be able to handle things when in a violent situation, or if you think you have to become some sort of Gothic monster to be able to fight, there is a lot for you to learn by watching this DVD. Really excellent work!
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